Observations and physics of accreting neutron stars

Welcome to the team website.

The aim of this project is to analyze all available RXTE/XMM-Newton/INTEGRAL data on the 8 known accretion-powered millisecond pulsars as well as about 20 nuclear-powered millisecond pulsars. We will further develop the accretion shock model for low magnetic field neutron stars in order to predict their radiation pattern. By modeling pulsar's phase-resolved spectra with the physical model, we will determine the physical parameters of the neutron stars such as their mass-to-radius ratio, magnetic field geometry, inclination of the systems. The constraints on the neutron star radius has important implications for understanding the nuclear physics at extremely high, supranuclear densities. We will also study theoretically and observationally spectra of the X-ray bursts with the accretion shocks above the burning region and develop a general model of the spreading layer on a surface of weakly magnetized neutron star.

Team participants:

• Poutanen, Juri (Team Leader) University of Oulu, Finland
  
• Beloborodov, Andrei • Columbia University, USA
  
• Done, Chris • University of Durham, UK
  
• Falanga, Maurizio • CEA-Saclay, Service d' Astrophysique, France
  
• Gilfanov, Marat • Max-Planck Institut fur Astrophysik, Garching, Germany
• Ikhsanov, Nazar • Marshall Space Flight Center, Hutsville, USA
  
• Larchenkova, Tatiana • Astro Space Center, Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia
  
• Lutovinov, Alexander • Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

• Molkov, Sergei • Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

• Revnivtsev, Mikhail • Max-Planck Institut fur Astrophysik, Garching, Germany
• Suleimanov, Valery • University of Tubingen, Germany
• Zdziarski, Andrzej • N.Copernicus Astronomical Center, Warsaw, Poland
  

Young scientists:

• Annala, Marja • University of Oulu, Finland
  
• Ibragimov, Askar • University of Oulu, Finland
  
• Tsygankov, Sergei • Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

First meeting: December 3-7, 2007

Second meeting: March 3-7, 2008

Third meeting: February 9-13, 2009

Publications